The Los Angeles Times has sliced nearly 1/6 of its editorial department in the last few years since being taken over by the Tribune Co. in Chicago:
The editorial staff currently numbers about 940. Since 1999, The Times' photo department has shrunk by about one-third. The graphics and design department has lost more than 40% of its employees. Large daily operations in Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley, scaled back before Tribune's purchase, have been reduced to just a handful of reporters. The debate about The Times comes roughly a year after John S. Carroll resigned as the newspaper's editor, saying the pressure to slash newsroom staff played a role in his decision to leave an operation that he led to 13 Pulitzer Prizes in five years.
It's still not enough for the Chicago people. But the new editor of the Times, Dean Baquet, has told them enough is enough:
The Tribune leaders received the letter a little more than two weeks after a budget meeting at the Times' offices. In that meeting, Editor Dean Baquet told Smith that the paper had cut enough jobs in recent years. If anything, he said, The Times needed to add positions to thoroughly cover local, national and international news, people familiar with the event said.
Is it because the Times is losing money? Of course not:
Other executives inside The Times complain that the push to downsize comes despite the fact that the paper is still a substantial moneymaker. Operating cash flow has dropped from its 2004 level of about $280 million, sources at the paper said, but its operating profit margins of about 20% still rank ahead of most big metropolitan papers.
The disagreement between The Times and its corporate parent has arisen at a difficult time for the Chicago media giant. Its stock price has fallen sharply since it acquired the paper in 2000 and revenue is declining.
So: rather than examine and correct corporate mismanagement and an acquisitional philosophy that has led the corp into some money-losing purchases, the solution is to further gut one of the properties that's actually making money and doing good work?
There's been talk that a consortium of L.A. moguls that includes Eli Broad and David Geffen might have an interest in buying the Times and bringing the management back to the city. Hard to see how they could do a worse job.
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